Life has a glitch, and then you die
by Mungalmah
Summary: What happens when all of America's heroes are incapacitated and unable to stop a national disaster. This story focuses on many different Super Humans.
1. Iron Man's point of View

Life Has a Glitch, and Then You Die

Iron Man's point of view

The power of the transistors was fading and with no emergency power supply in sight, Tony Stark had to fall and accept the inevitable. He had been fiercely engaged in a battle with the Crimson Dynamo about an hour previously, but that had to be cut short as an unidentified space craft had entered the Earth's atmosphere. Attempts to make contact with the ship had failed and now force was needed as it plunged, seemingly helplessly, towards New York city. The reason the famed golden avenger, Iron Man, was rocketing to his death, unable to stop the impending disaster was because, the ship has armed with a microscopic scrambler, designed to shut down heavy artillery and military systems from other planets. One touch was all that was needed to switch of the worlds greatest mechanical weapon.

Jarvis who normally aided Tony with the suit, generally righting wrongs and correcting flight patterns, had vanished with the lock down of his power grid and the system's mainframe. Furiously the playboy billionaire lifted the two tonnes of machinery drilled around his body, looking for the 'reset' button of sorts. It had been developed as an emergency function only to be used in a crisis, this fully qualifies as a crisis. Cracking the ice of his suit, gained from flying at such a high altitude with no external heat valves, he fumbled with the short, circular lever finally breaking it free and yanking it to his left, slowing his descent but not bringing back his power, _Damn, it wasn't the emergency systems lever, that was for my altitude flaps, _he reached to his right and grabbed the other bar sticking out. A young man's face appeared in front of Tony, it was Jarvis, but he was fading.

'Hello sir, may I be of assistance, you seem to be falling perilously.'

'Uh yeah Jarvis, but don't hurry yourself, I wouldn't want you to think that I was impatient, its just the prospect of my death doesn't sound very appealing!'

'I am programmed to recognise fear sir, don't worry I am switching on your reverse jet thrusters,_ I also recognise sarcasm._' Iron Man's rockets built into his hands and feet, forced to life, saved him from hitting the George Washington bridge and splashing down in the Hudson river. The shape of the Crimson Dynamo loomed over Iron Man once again, but the emergency power was running low once again, if he didn't get away, not only would Iron Man drown but before that Tony Stark would go into cardiac arrest, because the lethal shrapnel would reach his heart and puncture all his main arteries. This is because of the transistorised magnet built into his chest, which runs off the suit's power, this was designed whilst kept as a hostage by terrorists, after a Stark bomb blew up in his face.

He had to do one thing, it was a long shot but it had to work. He drew the Dynamo closer until he was level with him, sapping the last part of his energy he flew slightly higher than his opponent, and shut himself down. He tumbled carelessly towards the Dynamo and landed with a metallic clang on his armour. The sudden surge in weight was too much, and Iron Man and his enemy fell, racing to the river. Pulling out his power cable, Tony was able to take control of his stunned travelling companion, he attached it to the Crimson Dynamo's chest and used the endless amounts of his reserve power to save his own heart. Detaching his cable, in one swift movement he threw it over one of the bridges support girders, pulling the two of them to the right and eventually slamming them into the concrete. Arising with life anew Tony saw the distant shape of the interstellar ship dropping like an A-bomb, and causing a mushroom cloud the size of Texas to form over the world's most powerful city.

_This was not good._


	2. Captain America's point of view

Captain America's point of view

The sun slowly set against the impressive background of the Avengers Mansion as Steve Rogers locked the main gate for the day. He was supposed to be meeting Tony Stark for a confidential talk on their Skrull strategy, but he had failed to arrive at the rendezvous point an hour earlier. With a heavy sigh, he set off on the long journey to his apartment on fifth avenue. It was one week before the fortieth anniversary of his cryogenic freezing, that was the day when he lost everything he knew; his sweetheart grew old and died waiting for him; his partner was kidnapped, robbed of his memories and then forced to attack his mentor; and his symbol of justice wore away. But that changed when Tony and the other Avengers, unfroze him and give him a new life.

The shooting star caught his eye one mile from his home, but it was too late once he had realised that it was falling to Earth. He remembered briefly that his one true love had made him swear upon a shooting star that he would never leave her, Cap had never wished again after that, everything seemed so perfect. He ran through closely guarded streets, past houses with up to four bolts on one door and leaped over discarded trash cans. Reaching back past his overcoat he tugged at the fine, blue material and pulled his mask over his blond hair. He discarded the coat as he ran and unfastened the belts holding his adamantium shield in place. Now he wasn't a civilian, he had transformed into the Sentinel of Liberty, Captain America, the sinking sun glinted off the ship's metallic casing, in the distance Iron Man was falling, possibly to his death. Was Cap to turn and save his friend or see where the ship was headed and try to stop it.

_I choose the ship, Tony would say the same to me, 'Leave me I'm fine', he'd say._ It never is that easy to see your best friend plummet and realise that you ave to leave them for the greater good. The doomed voyager dropped in the sky, revealing the inhabitants of the cockpit to Cap, they were humanoid but had enlarged foreheads. This may be the creatures natural appearance, but he had learned to not be easily deceived, aliens such as the Kree had learned to morph to different shapes and sizes.

He had ran all the way to Manhattan, once this was over maybe he could chat to Spider-man about the last Avengers meeting, he had failed to arrive again. _I'm not angry, but maybe he is in trouble, I have to check._ The strange thing was that the ship had increased it's speed as if it was trying to outrun Cap. But it was still falling madly out of control. He had to stop it and the only weapon he had was his shield, arching his body, he turned at his waist and threw it with all his might at the engines, the shield shot straight through them, but on the way back it severed the fuel line and the ship appeared to shoot back up into the sky. Instead it angled lower as it fell and finally fell on Central Park.

The blast caused an explosion so powerful that the whole area was bathed in peacefulness for a few seconds. But the force of it caught up with Cap, who had retrieved his shield and was running as fast as he could from the blast radius. He wasn't quick enough, so instead he turned towards the wall of destruction and in a split second lifted his shield to level with his head and let himself get hit. The winds caused by it instantly knocked him unconscious and snapped his neck in two places. He was about to slam into the side of an advertisement billboard when a thin, line of webbing attached to his ankle and yanked him skyward with the force of the blast itself.

_Oh my god,_ he thought subconsciously, _ this is it, my death._


	3. Spiderman's point of view

Peter Parker hurried out of his apartment from the third floor window, his shoes and socks attached to his back in a make-shift web bag, this was to allow one of his miraculous mutations to shine, his ability to climb and walk on walls. He was off to talk to Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America. After the recent run in with the Beyonder clone, he hadn't been able to come to any Avengers meetings. This was going to be awkward he knew it, but he owed it to Steve to tell him the truth, whether he believed it or not didn't matter.

He arrived at the mansion of the world's greatest team of superheroes, but no-one was in sight, and the main gate had been locked. He couldn't get in touch with Iron Man, his communicator was switched off and the other Avengers, weren't in range for his short-wave radio.

He had to follow Steve to where ever he went. This was made easier by the heavy boot prints he left in the dirt, only able to be seen by someone with enhanced sight. He followed the steps, which got slowly, but surely further apart, this meant that he had started to run, faster and faster. Peter had the advantage though, as Spider-man he could leap to a high building and effortlessly jump ahead of Cap. But it was what he saw next that made him stop and stare aimlessly. It was a real alien spaceship, he had heard about more and more aliens dropping to Earth. But he was never involved, after all he was the youngest super-hero going (Except for the Richards' kids, but they don't count). With his heightened hearing he followed Cap's breathing through a back alley where he was standing, slightly turned towards him, but he hadn't seen him. He tried shouting out, but he had once again started running, this time he leaped up and caught his shield n mid-air.

The events that followed were astonishing, out of the corner of his eye Spidey noticed the red and yellow glint of Iron Man's armour. He was falling and fast, it probably wasn't even worth it but he shot two lines of his webbing towards his friend, but they missed by a few miles. He had to ignore him and get to the matter at hand. Aliens in his backyard! The craft dropped into Central Park, out of his sight, but he knew what had happened, he had seen enough movies to know what was about to unfold. The whole city was engulfed in silence and then it started. Buildings were ripped from their foundations, and cars were upturned effortlessly. Cap was right in the line of power from the falling aliens ship. He tried running, but even Peter knew he wouldn't make it. The winds were too fast, so instead Peter would save him, he ran flat-out from building to building using his webbing to tug himself along. He leaped into the blast whilst shooting a line of web at Cap's leg, he missed and caught his ankle, but it would do. Spidey was thrown at about one hundred and forty miles per second across New York's central plaza. Luckily for Cap this speed helped pull him away from the destruction.

His last thoughts were of the people he held closest to his heart, his wife Mary Jane Watson-Parker, the woman that made all of his dreams come true and stuck by him no matter what, His aunt May the most resilient woman in the known universe and all of his friends. Maybe this was the end, but not for him.

_Don't worry I'm coming back for everyone, even if it means battling death himself._


	4. Cyclops' point of view

Scott Summers woke abruptly from a dream about his early life, it started when his parents were killed. He had awoken in a hospital surrounded by nothing by white, when a doctor strode in. He bent close to Scott and whispered in his ear, _I'm sorry son, but I have some sad news for you. _Scott just wanted to know, no formalities, no letting him down gently. _Where's my brother, Alex, is he all right? _The doctor looked shocked by Scott's sudden abruptness, he replied by explaining that Alex was fine, but his parents were killed in the car crash. He also explained that it was the same accident that had put Scott into a coma, which had lasted years. This caused an unnatural reaction from Scott, he jumped from his bed, pushed the doctor aside and forced ruby blasts from his eyes destroying the west wing of the hospital. The dream always ended with him waking in a cold sweat and his long-time girlfriend Emma nursing him back to sleep.

Instead of her brushing his hair back gently, he found her standing at the window looking very uncomfortable. He had seen this before, but not with her, with his ex-wife. He couldn't control himself from thinking, almost screaming in his head, _JEAN_! Emma turned, looking directly into his eyes she spoke telepathically, _No Scott, I'm not Jean, remember Jean sacrificed herself years ago._

'I know, I'm sorry I just had a bad dream'. He walked slowly towards her and peered out of the window where he saw a ship of some kind dropping, no it was hurtling down to the ground a few miles away. Emma was clearly using all of her powers to control the pilots, but they had a strange type of shield, it wasn't anything she had encountered before, it could stop her mind entering, a sudden electrical jolt shot through her body, paralysing her. She had seen this before, it was a simple device used by mainly Brotherhood members. Magneto had developed it to stop his friend-turned nemesis Charles Xavier from tampering with his head. Emma dropped limply from her bedroom window, Scott reacted immediately grabbing her waist, but his hands were still unsure of themselves, after just waking up. His fingers were slipping, he needed help. That was when he grabbed with one hand, the other still clutching to Emma, the communicator to reach Beast. He had built it for emergency use only. Emma was panicking, her body going into a kind of spasm, all her limbs flailed madly, some of them hitting Scott, his quartz visor slipped from his temples. He called Beast and he was there in a second and took Emma to the moist grass of the institutes grounds.

Scott fell to his knees, feeling his mutant power surging from underneath his visor. He couldn't stop it, but he had to pray no one was caught in it, for this was the pure, unfiltered power he had spent years holding back,

'GET OUT OF THE WAY. I CAN'T STOP IT!'

The blast took the entire window section off the building, and Beast just managed to hoist himself and Emma away from the wreckage. A thought occurred to Scott, maybe he could use this accident to his advantage, if he cold just hit the ship, it might hit a safer, more deserted area. He was wrong though, the blast powered it's way through New York, when the ship touched down, the force from the crash landing was much stronger than he had imagined. It forced the blast itself back towards Scott, it happened too fast. He was hit and slammed into his own bedroom wall. The last thing he remembered was Emma screaming out his name and seeing a huge piece of concrete wall dropping towards him.

_Oh crap, this is it, Goodbye Jea..._


End file.
